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Vent about this forum :(

dianehelen

Posts: 131
Joined: Nov 2012

Dec 23, 2012 - 7:49 am

OK Ive really been trying to hold my tongue and not complain, but Im sorry I just have to vent a bit. Sorry if this upsets anyone.

So we were all having problems with this site, slow to load, sometimes did not load at all, sometimes posts would double. We were given some hope the admins were aware of the problems, then the other day we get a notice that the site will be down a few hours and new software would give us not only relief to the known problems, but new features and function.

We patiently wait, about 6 hours past the original down estimate.

We come back to the board, during a time that many of us really need this form of communication to help us get thru these very tough times, and what do we find?

A board that is worse than before, has a whole slew of new problems and frankly, so far I see absolutely NO new features, just the same old stuff that doesnt work, and MORE stuff that doesnt work. All of our content is gone, our emails are gone, are pictures are gone, our friend lists are gone, and the site is STILL slow a molasses to log into to.

I cant believe an organization as big and respected as the ACS would have such poor programming staff to release this new board, with soooo many errors and issues. I do web programming and web development for a living, and if I did this to a client, Id be FIRED!

It also makes me wonder why they planned this upgrade (using that term VERY loosely) right on the crest of a holiday weekend. It would have made more sence to wait till after the new year, when everyone can relax, and maybe the programmers werent drunk on eggnog (sorry, )

Im very sad and dissapointed, having looked forward to new and improved, got new and worse :(

I need mine as well. I had written down a list of tips for chemo (provided by users on CSN) and tips for post mastectomy surgery. I didn't back it up on a document on my computer. HAD WE KNOWN,CSN, THAT YOU WERE GOING TO ERASE ALL OF OUR PRIVATE MESSAGES, WE WOULD HAVE MADE BACK-UPS OF THEM ALL.
ACTUALLY, I WAS OUT OF TOWN AND HAD NO INTERNET SERVICE, AND WAS NOT AWARE THAT CSN WAS CHANGING! MANY TRAVEL DURING THE HOLIDAY SEASON (WE WERE ICE FISHING, THOUGH), AND MOR ADVANCED NOTICE SHOULD HAVE BEEN GIVEN.

I have been postings on online forums/discussion breast cancer boards since 1997. I have seen this many times when posters are disappointed in the results. I also posts to several boards and each has a different format, so I just adjust to the different formats. I also work with computers in real life and found that the ability to adjust is part of it all.

1) You have to allow csn time to work out the quirks. It is the weekend with a major holiday coming up.

2) It might not be what we are use to on the old board and it might not be what was hoped. Most new formats upsets people. I have found in time, most people adjust with no problems.

Most formats are changed to the convenience of the technician doing the job. With all the boards that I have seen this happen, people will complain. This includes online as well as in real life. No one likes change, we all enjoy our comfortable old slippers to a new pair. Give it time.

I have no problem with format differences. I do have a problem when software is released premature to proper testing. I have been posting on electronic community message boards before there was even the user available internet as we know it.

The timing was poor and the level of errors this was released with is just a fail. I say this not only as a poster on this forum, i say it as a professional in the tech industry that would find this unacceptably below standard.

I understand what you are saying about patience, and in trying, but the missing content i just have a hard time with

Sorry Susan, that is an incorrect assumption. "GOOD" programmers , while they may be nerds, should and do have the ability to do what is called "bullet proof" testing. I was the Technical Support Director for a software company for many years, in charge of overseeing all software updates, changes, and documentation. I had the true "nerds" working on the coding, but either myself, or my staff ALWAYS ran the software thru any and all conceiveable situations, before it was EVER released to the non technical public.

I too am involved in MANY MANY forums, of many different formats, but this one is a very strage format, by the very nature of the message that is below each post window, indicates there is a sharp deficit in who and how this board is managed.

This message:

You can use <object> , <embed >and < script>tags from the following sites to add media to your posts:
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Filtered words will be replaced with the filtered version of the word.

Is really offering a level of knowlege and experience that is not at all common to an average forum user. By even offering that shows the lack in real world management this forum has.

And.. btw, the coding they are offering , as a way to include picture or other media to a post, does NOT EVEN WORK!

The site is crap. I'm all for change but this is the worst I've ever seen. Who works in the quality control department of this software company doing this job????????? Do they not know you have to test software before it goes live???? Who at ACS signed off on this purchase order???? If I were you I would hold final payment until all the bugs are worked out!!! I also worked for a company that sold software, our workers would have been fired sending out a piece of software like this!! Did the person who approved this change actually see a copy of this before it went live??? There are a lot of people who need to be accountable. It is a piece of crap...................................

It might be that those who work on these issues are not neccessarily employees. Perhaps they are trusted volunteers. I suspect they will be very busy as soon as possible. No I do not like the change but I suspect I will get used to it soon enough. Meanwhile lets try and focus on things that are less stressful as cancer has managed to give us an overload of stress already. Lets not help it along with adding more to the pile of stress.

other than the slight change in format. It is still impossible to access sometimes, slower than molasses most of the time and I sure wish that could be fixed. I can't count the times I've given up and that has not changed at all.

I see some things that are being reported are being fixed. I think they are ironing the problems as they are reported. I do notice that some times the site is really slow, but more often it seems faster in the past.

Breastcancer.org did a change to their website a while back and they had lots of glitches as well. We griped, they fixed what they could.

I realized that I should not have been so hard on the web administrators.

I have problems too.I'm not sure this will go through even though I signed in. All was fine but when I tried to go into the discoussion board it said this page cannot be assesed.Also said when I signed in page cannot be found or something like that.

I did email but like most of you've said and (I also said in another post I HAD TO start. I could't answer anyone's post about their problems or mine.

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